Escuela Amaranta Gómez Regalado or Amaranta School is a private school in

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

for

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

students from 6 to 17 years old. It is named for

Amaranta Gómez Regalado Amaranta Gómez Regalado (born 1977) is a Mexican Muxe social anthropologist, political candidate, HIV prevention activist, social researcher, columnist and promoter of pre-Columbian indigenous cultural identity. Biography Gómez was born in 197 ...

, a transgender Mexican politician, and is the first primarily transgender school in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, possibly the world. First proposed in December 2017, the school was opened in April 2018 by Ximena Matura, the school coordinator, and Evelyn Silva, its head, who is the president of the Selenna Foundation, a trans rights organization. Housed in space in a community center donated by the community of

Ñuñoa Ñuñoa (; from Mapudungun ''Ñuñohue'', "place of yellow flowers") is a commune of the Northeastern zone of Santiago, in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of Chile. According to the 2021 Urban Life Quality Index (ICVU), it is considered the fou ...

, enrollment is 38, 22 or 23 trans-identifying and the remainder mostly friends and relatives. The students report having been bullied, and most had previously dropped out of school. Chile bans the teaching or discussion of "

gender ideology The anti-gender movement is an international movement which opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology", " gender theory" or "genderism". The concepts cover a variety of issues and have no coherent definition. Members of the anti-gender mov ...

" in state-funded schools, but the country passed a gender identity law allowing those 14 or older to change the gender on their identity documents, with parental permission required for those under 18. The school has two classrooms, for students under 12 and for those aged 12 to 17. teachers were working without pay, and Maturano and Silva paid all other costs for the first year, but monthly fees were proposed to begin in March. A summer program started in 2019 had 20 participants, 8 not previously enrolled, and the school hopes to win a competition grant of $20,000 from an international trans fund in order to expand. Students must take tests provided by the Ministry of Education to certify that they have passed a grade level. The school is named for Amaranta Gómez Regalado, a Zapotec Mexican trans activist and politician who identifies as a ''

muxe In Zapotec cultures of Oaxaca (southern Mexico), a muxe (also spelled muxhe; ) is a person assigned male at birth who dresses and behaves in ways otherwise associated with women; they may be seen as a third gender. Etymology The Zapotec word ' ...

''. It is nicknamed ''les niñes'', the Spanish gender-neutral form of "the children".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Escuela Amaranta Gomez Regalado Transgender in South America LGBT and education Educational institutions established in 2018 Schools in Santiago, Chile 2018 establishments in Chile Private schools in Chile